US R&B star Kelis has raced to the top of the charts with her single about a cheating lover, 'Caught Out There', with its furious chorus: 'I hate you so much right now.' But she isn't the first to commit righteous anger to disk.

1 'You Oughta Know' by Alanis Morisette

Bile gets you noticed and Alanis oughta know. Her debut single with its catchy line, 'Are you thinking of me when you fuck her', won best rock song at the 1996 Grammys - and was then bleeped out in her performance at the awards ceremony. 'You told me you'd hold me, until you died/ But you're still alive,' she ranted.

2 'Here, My Dear' by Marvin Gaye

Money may not have been uppermost in Marvin's mind when he married Motown boss Berry Gordy's sister Anna, 17 years his senior, in 1961. But it certainly was two decades later when they were finally divorced, after living apart for years. The money from this 1979 double album went towards the divorce settlement, hence the loving title.

3 'How Do You Sleep' by John Lennon

'The only thing you done was yesterday,' sang John on the Imagine album in 1970, in response to some mild criticism from former songwriting partner Paul McCartney. 'And since you're gone you're just another day,' he added. In the recording studio, though, he'd reportedly planned to scream: 'You probably pinched that bitch anyway,' before being talked down.

4 'EMI' by The Sex Pistols

George Michael's hymn to Sony, 'I'm never going to sing again. Bastards! Bastards!' sung to the tune of 'Careless Whisper' famously appeared on his answerphone but never received a general release. The Pistols were less circumspect. Dumped by EMI after the Bill Grundy affair, Johnny Rotten rattled off a paean to 'stupid fools who stand in line/like/EMI' just to show he didn't take it personally. The song appeared on the band's debut album Never Mind The Bollocks in 1977.

5 'Tramp the Dirt Down' by Elvis Costello

'Well I hope I don't die too soon,' sang Costello in 1989 in his personal tribute to the then prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, 'because there's one thing I know I'd like to live long enough to savour.' Which was: 'When they finally put you in the ground/I'll stand on your grave/And tramp the dirt down.' No flowers, then.

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